With predictions that gas will reach between $5/gal to $6+/gal by the end of the summer, do you think we could be on the verge of seeing an explosion in the numbers of remote workers? Not just in IT, but in all areas of the economy. Personally, I could do about 80% of my job remotely and I work 2 days from home now. When prices shoot up, I’ll be pushing for 3 remote days.

I know prices will come down again after summer, but demand is on the rise and I wouldn't be surprised to see sustained $5+ prices within the next couple of years here in the States. Increased gas prices are not much different than getting a pay cut, you dump more cash in the tank and you pay more for just about everything else. Companies are either going to have to compensate their employee's more to make up for it or provide a way to mitigate the costs.

Just curious as to what you think the trend is going to be in this area. Also, people in other countries where oil is not subsidized or is more heavily taxed, do you find you have a higher number of remote workers?

56 Replies

1st Post

Most definitely, I believe there will be more remote users!! I'm going to be asking for a couple of days at home myself if it gets that bad around Chattanooga. driving 50 miles a day (round trip) myself :)

no, i don't think you'll start to see more remote work. I think that depending on where you live you will see more creative use of mass transit and carpool or ride-sharing. With the increase in gas costs and new implementations of tolled roads around the seattle area, more and more people are finding it cheaper to take our trains, trams, and buses, not necessarily more convenient, but cheaper.

I just took over the role as IT Sys Admin for my company. Our corporate HQ is about 74 miles from me, but we have a remote office where I live. Basically I stay back in town 3 days a week and I drive down 2 days a week to our HQ. It would be nice not to have to go down because we are connected via a MPLS so I have a constant connection to our HQ and I do basically everything with either RDP or TeamViewer. Only times I actually need to be there is if someone has a hardware issue.

Depends entirely on the culture of the place you work for. Honestly gas prices is the last thing people consider when it comes to allowing employees to work at home.

Where I work now they don't currently allow it and talking to people that's not likely to change. A year ago where I worked everyone except the boss worked from home. He liked working in the office to get away from family so he could get stuff done. Now I can do after hours and weekend work remotely but I'm expected to be onsite day to day.

If you want to convince your employer to allow working from home extol the benefits the company will reap from it. Don't bother explaining how you will benefit from it by saving on gas (unless you drive a company car).

Most definitely, I believe there will be more remote users!! I'm going to be asking for a couple of days at home myself if it gets that bad around Chattanooga. driving 50 miles a day (round trip) myself :)

A lot companies still don't like the tele-commuting idea. It's almost as if they feel if we can't see you working (and just cause you're in the office doesn't mean you're working) then you aren't actually working, you are only bilking the company. I think this is more prevalent in SMB than in enterprise, but it does exist. I'd love to not have to spend gas on coming into work a couple of days a week, but it's not going to happen.

Most definitely, I believe there will be more remote users!! I'm going to be asking for a couple of days at home myself if it gets that bad around Chattanooga. driving 50 miles a day (round trip) myself :)

A lot companies still don't like the tele-commuting idea. It's almost as if they feel if we can't see you working (and just cause you're in the office doesn't mean you're working) then you aren't actually working, you are only bilking the company. I think this is more prevalent in SMB than in enterprise, but it does exist. I'd love to not have to spend gas on coming into work a couple of days a week, but it's not going to happen.

That is definitely where the biggest resistance would be and as Nick pointed out, there are ways that commuters can adjust their own habits and living locations to reduce their fuel usage.

That being said, we seem to be in a unique situation right now. People are upside down on their mortgages which makes moving closer to work very difficult. A mass exodus from the suburbs would exasperate that problem. Also, while Seattle may have excellent public transportation, a lot of other places don't.

If companies start losing quality people because they are willing to take a few dollars less per hour to avoid a costly 50+ mile commute, that could force corporate culture and SMB managers to change.

It's sad but I have begun to wonder how I might pay for gas to make it to work... Someone shouldn't have to wonder how they are going to get to work because they can't afford Gas. Unfortunately there is no good way to get to work cost effectively via public transportation for me. I can get to work taking the commuter bus to the city, then taking another commuter bus to my workplace, but by the time I get out of work the commuter bus from the city back home has all ready left which means I can take a bus form work back to the city but I can't get home from there.

Remote work only works when you have dedicated, disciplined employees that are concerned about ensuring that they have enough to do, as another esteemed panelist stated, do not attempt to convince them that you will save money on gas by working from home. Remember this phrase when you consider this sales pitch.

Who are you and what can you do to make me more money.

9-12 hours of solid work beats 9 -12 hours of 90 minute commute each way with 30 minutes unwind and prep time each day. The only folks that cannot do remote work are those that are required to put thier hands on equipment and those that are mandated by special directive. All other information workers can stay home four days a week.

Public transportation is also a bonus when it is availible, its not always there.

A lot companies still don't like the tele-commuting idea. It's almost as if they feel if we can't see you working (and just cause you're in the office doesn't mean you're working) then you aren't actually working, you are only bilking the company. I think this is more prevalent in SMB than in enterprise, but it does exist. I'd love to not have to spend gas on coming into work a couple of days a week, but it's not going to happen.

This has been my experience as well. I work at a SMB with just 25 employees and only one is allowed to work remotely and he had to agree to go full commission before they would allow it (he was driving about 50mi each way). I would LOVE to work from home and cut out my 40mi/day commute, but management here doesn't trust anyone and assumes we'd just be "stealing". They do let users work remotely on occasions like sick/personal days, but I think even this bothers them.

Management here doesn't seem to realize that no matter how many filters, monitors, etc they have me set up no one is %100 focused on work all day. People will just find other ways to waste time.

A lot companies still don't like the tele-commuting idea. It's almost as if they feel if we can't see you working (and just cause you're in the office doesn't mean you're working) then you aren't actually working, you are only bilking the company. I think this is more prevalent in SMB than in enterprise, but it does exist. I'd love to not have to spend gas on coming into work a couple of days a week, but it's not going to happen.

This has been my experience as well. I work at a SMB with just 25 employees and only one is allowed to work remotely and he had to agree to go full commission before they would allow it (he was driving about 50mi each way). I would LOVE to work from home and cut out my 40mi/day commute, but management here doesn't trust anyone and assumes we'd just be "stealing". They do let users work remotely on occasions like sick/personal days, but I think even this bothers them.

Management here doesn't seem to realize that no matter how many filters, monitors, etc they have me set up no one is %100 focused on work all day. People will just find other ways to waste time.

What's messed up about this is you mention they will let people work from home on PTO like personal days and sick days. So in essence a perk they offer, time off to recuperate if you're sick, or days off to attend to personal business, are really no different than any other work day the company is still paying you to work they're just being nice and letting you do it from home. They may still not like it but hey now at least they are getting some work out of you where as in a different time, maybe 5 or so years ago, they would have had to eat the entire day of lost productivity.

The federal government has started a telework initiative. The bad winter storms a couple of years ago convinced the powers that be to allow, and even encourage, more people to work from home or telework centers. While gas prices are not necessarily a convincing reason for many employers, the combination of gas demands, energy efficiency, and environmental benefits are weighed in with the reduce cost of maintaining office equipment and furniture and in many cases even reducing office space.

A lot companies still don't like the tele-commuting idea. It's almost as if they feel if we can't see you working (and just cause you're in the office doesn't mean you're working) then you aren't actually working, you are only bilking the company. I think this is more prevalent in SMB than in enterprise, but it does exist. I'd love to not have to spend gas on coming into work a couple of days a week, but it's not going to happen.

I think you are absolutely corect. Technology is no longer the issue - it's cultural.

If you work in a business or live in an area that cannot acccept the concept, then it is not going to happen.

I've been kicking this around a bit to see if it would work for my company. We employ some part time staff inc. women with children and I have been asked to set some of them up to work from home.

Some of the issues are; who supplies the equipment to allow them to work off site? do they have a work space at home or do we need to find one locally? How do we give them access to paper files? How do we ensure that work is done and done correctly? How do we ensure security of data, company and personel? How do we ensure that employees feel they are a part of the company while working away from the source?

Some of the benefits could be; a smaller HQ, the ability to employ people from a greater geographc area. More flexible working hours. Not entirely sure about cost benefits tho'

I have to say that of those that do work from home from time to time, the hours that they put in appear to be longer. A benefit from diciplined working but it does not suit everyone.

My feeling at the moment is that it depends on the type of business and its abilty to allow flexible distance working. In our situation the decision is taken case by case but I can see some roles could be converted if they were thought about thoroughly. Definately the technology is there to do distance working.

VPN from your home computer and RDP into your company computer, forward your desk phone to your cell, and remove that silly "Sent from my Blackberry/iPhone/etc" line from your email signature. For bonus points, close your office door and put up a sticky note that says "on conference call, send me an email" before you leave the office on the day before you plan on working from home. Trust me, nobody will know that you're not there...

I've been kicking this around a bit to see if it would work for my company. We employ some part time staff inc. women with children and I have been asked to set some of them up to work from home.

Some of the issues are; who supplies the equipment to allow them to work off site? do they have a work space at home or do we need to find one locally? How do we give them access to paper files? How do we ensure that work is done and done correctly? How do we ensure security of data, company and personel? How do we ensure that employees feel they are a part of the company while working away from the source?

Some of the benefits could be; a smaller HQ, the ability to employ people from a greater geographc area. More flexible working hours. Not entirely sure about cost benefits tho'

I have to say that of those that do work from home from time to time, the hours that they put in appear to be longer. A benefit from diciplined working but it does not suit everyone.

My feeling at the moment is that it depends on the type of business and its abilty to allow flexible distance working. In our situation the decision is taken case by case but I can see some roles could be converted if they were thought about thoroughly. Definately the technology is there to do distance working.

You bring up valid concerns and points. In most cases, unless the person is a contractor, or going to solely be working form home, if they have a computer and Internet connection they can VPN in and RDP (or remotely connect) to a secured company computer, terminal server, or Virtual machine. As far as work being done correctly I hope they know their job, I mean they could be screwing up the same things at work why is it that them being physically present is going to make them do the work properly, or that it will be checked. If you have a QA process in place all ready then it shouldn't be difficult to modify it to deal with telework as well. As far as work getting done, that is a measurable thing, and just because they are in the office doesn't mean they are getting any work done. If anything they might get more done particularly because many office distractions are not present like BS-ing around the water cooler. Security of the data is taken care of if they are remoting into a machine in your building, for the most part, they could still potentially cause a breach but unlikely unless they are purposefully trying to harm the company, which they could be doing as well even if present at the company. If they have a company laptop or something that is a different issue, however, they do make thin client laptops as well which might be cost effective if you really want to mitigate issues though that might post other issues if they don't work exclusively from home.

The last one ensuring an employee feels like they are part of the company is a harder one to answer, but do employees that come to work feel that way, that might be a better question to ask.

Management here doesn't seem to realize that no matter how many filters, monitors, etc they have me set up no one is %100 focused on work all day. People will just find other ways to waste time.

When I transfered to my current location, I had to wait 3 weeks for space to be arranged for me in the office. (and I still had 4 tons of old documents, proposals, and construction plans in the cubicle)

I was "allowed" to work from home for those few weeks, and I think I got FAR more accomplished. No constant interruptions. No hour lunch just to get out of the office and away from annoying people...

Several of my peers in other regions of the country are asking to work from home. I'm only 11 miles from the office, and it's a straight shot down the freeway, so I probably won't be allowed. But for my colleagues who live 90 minutes outside Chicago, and San Francisco. 2 hours outside Manhattan. I hope they are given the option.

It depends on the industry in question. The comfort zone of management and the type of work force in question. When I worked for Sun we had a 3 to 1 ratio of employees to desks. They ran a flex office where you worked from home but if you needed to come into work you reserved an available cube for the day or days.

Here at Arrow some of the engineers who work in more remote areas from Arrow offices work from home nearly full time. While others are in the office all of the time. Most have the option of working from home up to two times a week. We use NoMachine to provide a GUI access to the linux desktops used by the engineers for CAD/EDA software.

As a systems admin I am constantly pushing the boundaries of remote work. Currently I have my iPhone set up to work with our VPN and when on the VPN can connect to each of the servers via a VNC client s well as using istatd. I have an ssh client as well if needed to connect to remote management modules on my servers and my blade chassis.